Geez there’s a lot of porn on the internet November 30, 2007
Posted by Niels in : Personal , add a commentBack at home in Maryland, it’s time to knuckle down and get back to work. I’m looking for a new niche to explore niche marketing again, so I checked out the Alexa top 500 - the top 500 sites on the internet. Never really realized until now how much porn there is. Wow.
Your thoughts?It’s moving day November 30, 2007
Posted by Niels in : Personal , add a commentMy parents moved this week, for the first time since I’ve been born. It’s long overdue - my mom loves cooking and gardening and for the last thirty years we’ve lived in a house with a tiny kitchen and no sun.
Moving’s stressful. Having done it nearly once a year for the past ten years, I can attest to that. And some people’s coping mechanisms are better than others. Watching my parents, I see so many of the personality traits I’ve been fighting to overcome for the past few years. It’s funny what you can come to accept as normal when you’re surrounded by it.
It also makes me wonder how I’m going to unknowingly mess my own kids up. Nobody’s perfect so I’m pretty sure it’s unavoidable. I’m just crossing my fingers that it won’t be too serious.
Your thoughts?More to see in London and Paris November 27, 2007
Posted by Niels in : Personal, Photos , add a commentOof, there’s too much to say about Marrakesh, so I’ll have to save those pictures until I get a chance to write them up. But now that I’m back home, I’ll wrap things up with my final days in London and Paris…
After five trips I was beginning to think I’d seen all there was to see of London and Paris. Of course, I was wrong.
I went to the English seaside. Not touristy Brighton, but quaint Eastbourne, down the road. I think I actually prefer stormy, windy days by the ocean to the perfect, clear, and sunny ones. Those white cliffs are Heady Point, not the white cliffs of Dover. Easy mistake through, as Heady Point is actually prettier and therefore used instead of Dover’s cliffs in movies.
Apparently there used to be twelve of these houses but with the cliffside eroding there’s just three left.
The British countryside has sheep. And hedges!
And thatched roofs! I’ve only seen those in themeparks before…
I got a student Eurostar ticket from London to Paris for $50! The new station at St. Pancreas is classy, elegant, and has a ginormous statue of a couple making out.
Paris has gutters inside its subway! They rinse them out at night automatically to get rid of the urine! I love France!
I’d seen all the major Paris sights so I did some searching online and decided to look up Saint Chappelle. It’s Paris’s best example of Gothic architecture, possibly more beautiful than Notre Dame. It’s inside the Palais du Justice (later built around the chapel) so I had to go through metal detectors and security to get to it.
The chapel is stunning. Every wall is filled with hundreds of intricate stained glass designs.
Like an centuries-old comic book, thhe stained glass windows tell the story of the bible.
Afterwards I discovered a particularly interesting Christmas display.
And finished the trip with old friends. Magnifique!
Report from Madrid: Day 6 November 26, 2007
Posted by Niels in : Personal , add a commentNovember 11: I had an afternoon flight, so the morning was spent at El Rastro, a HUGE Spanish open air market frequented by locals, tourists, and pickpockets. Apparently there’s a common scam where someone will toss a baby in the air and as you reach out to catch what turns out to be a doll, someone is already picking your pockets.
I managed to get away with my wallet intact, until I passed a bakery that sold truffles as well as balls of chocolate mousse rolled in chocolate shavings.
After being overwhelmed by the market, we headed to the park. There were puppet shows!
And also a play of Hansel and Gretel. The particularly clever aspect was the free candy they offered afterwards, so kids run up to get the free candy and their parents are guilted into handing over money. Smooth.
I’m sick of speaking only English November 25, 2007
Posted by Niels in : Personal , 3 commentsOne thing that really struck me in Marrakesh was the number of languages that people spoke. It seemed like every shopkeeper spoke at least six different languages - Arabic, French, English, Japanese, German, Spanish…
In the US, it seems like learning a foreign language is something reserved for the wealthy. Seeing Marrakesh made me realize what a joke that is. And so my New Year’s resolution is to become conversational in Spanish and learn some French. But I’m getting a head start by beginning now - I’ll be doing a Pimsleur French lesson everyday and working my way through Harry Potter in Spanish. This will be interesting…
Your thoughts?